SPARTAAAAAN-GRADE EPIC LENGTH ESSAY AHEAD

First of all, it’s time for resolution school. I’ll be using a couple of short-form resolutions, so do pay attention. There may be a test. 1080p means 1080 progressive lines. HD resolutions are, by being a derivative of televisions, measured by the number of lines they have. Think PAL50-60. 1080p  has a full resolution of 1920x1080 (as its defined as a 16:9 aspect ratio). There’s also the retard cousin of 1080p who dribbles out of its mouth; 1080i. It still retains a resolution of 1920x1080, but its an interlaced image. Which means every frame has half of the lines needed to make up the full picture, and the lines are alternated every other frame. In a single frame, 1080i has an effective image resolution of 1920x540, and it suffers from line effects by motion due to the fact it has to be deinterlaced on LCDs. 1080i is made of fail. Lower down the scale, we have 720p, which is a progressive 16:9 resolution of 1280x720. 1080p is ‘true’ HD, and 720p is high enough definition to be deemed HD at all. 1080i is just a stupid oddity, so we’ll ignore it from now on. Finally, most computer (wide)screens use a 16:10 format instead of 16:9. This means the equivalent resolution to 1080p on a PC screen is WUXGA (catchy), with a resolution of 1920x1200. This is extrapwn, because you basically get 1080p, plus 1920x120 pixels of space in which to render a UI or HUD of form, at least, so it should be. Lesson over.

Next on to how consoles do shit. By consoles I mean gaming consoles; I’m excluding casual exercise devices such as the Wii, because it can’t even dream of reaching the resolution a standard DVD is rendered at, and because it’s sadly past its bedtime. It had to go to bed early, as it has pre-school tomorrow. Both the Xbox360 (‘360’ from here) and the Playstation3 (PS3) can output a video signal of 1080p, given the correct connection (HDMI). But here’s the snag; both consoles have a limited amount of ram. The 360 has 512MB of unified system memory, which the GPU or the CPU can use. The PS3 favours a more classical approach of split memory, with 256MB for the GPU and 256MB for the CELL. With PCs touting multiple gigabytes of RAM, and half a gig to a gig of VRAM, given that consoles output 1080p, it does rather make you wonder what PCs do with it all.

Which would be true if consoles rendered at 1080p. Today, there’s very few titles on either PS3 or 360 that are rendered at a resolution of 1080p. Nearly all titles are rendered at 720p (And Call of Duty 4 is rendered at 600p), and then the console performs upscaling operations on the rendered result to output its video signal at 1080p. In this area, the 360 has a minor advantage, MS put in an upscaling chip called ‘Ana’ which does this. Granted it’s not the hardest task, but it’s a nicety. Furthermore, the EDRAM on-die memory chip on the ‘Xenos’ GPU allows the 360 to perform effectively performance-free 4xMSAA; jaggies are one of the most noticeable things with an upscaled signal. Between the upscaling performed and general image-enhancement that the image processing chips on all HDTVs (unlike LCD Monitors which posses AWFUL scaling, as they’re designed to accept a ‘Native’ signal), things don’t look too bad. But they’re certainly not rendering in 1080p, neither console really has the hardware resources to practically achieve it. They’re simply too weak. The good news is, you’re too thick to realise it. Between your console telling you its outputting 1080p and that shiny sticker on your screen saying “HD Ready”, ignorance is bliss. You really have to get into the £15k 61” Sony WEGAs before you notice anything is amiss. Still, continue to live your lie.

Enter the computer. Modern gaming PCs are sporting four physical processing cores (Compared to three cores on the 360, and two cores + SPEs on the PS3), gigabytes of memory (2GB is the minimum on a decent gaming PC), and one, maybe two (shit, with Crossfire-X on the horizon, four won’t be such a silly number soon) graphics cards with VRAM of at least 768MB, and up to 2GB of VRAM in Multiple-GPU setups, PCs are capable of pushing terrifying amounts of calculations about. And given, they’re not just dedicated gaming machines, a high end gaming rig will happily run Photoshop, Office, an internet browser, and perform video/sound editing or CAD work admirably. There’s a problem with PCs versus consoles; Cost. Gaming PCs can cost in the thousands of pounds. By contrast, the 360 retails at roughly £250, and the PS3 £300 (the Wii just trotted downstairs because it was having nightmares, aww. While we’re on it, Wiis are retailing at roughly £280 as the lowest internet price, and upwards of £300 on the street, mainly due to supply issues. I’ll give you a hint right now; it’s not worth half that much). So, it would seem, that given PS3/360 does 1080p and costs a few hundred quid, when it comes to price/performance, they have the PC well and truly beat. Which would be true, but I established earlier neither console is actually doing 1080p at all. Whereas a PC WILL do 1920x1200, and if you screen can do it, hell, they’ll go all the way up to 2560x1600 without batting an eyelid (but you’re needing some SERIOUS grunt for that shit).

So what’s the point of it all? I won’t sit here and try and argue that a PC’s performance/cost is better than a consoles (fuck it, it sure beats a Wii by miles though), and its doubtfully even par with a 360/PS3. So you can’t game on a PC at high-definition for a low price. But you most certainly can’t on a console either. And at this point in our story, our heroes paths separate. You see, you get what you pay for. With a console, you get a limited (some more than others, 360s really can just play games, PS3s can run Linux, fold, and do Blu-Ray) functionality. You can play games on it, but not at HD resolution like you may previously have thought. And the PC; not cost effective at all, but you can just do so much with it, and you can game on it at absurd resolutions. So yes, you do indeed get what you pay for, and with a 360 or a PS3, or a PC, you get a good deal, all three platforms are excellent. The Wii can still fuck off though.

I hope this raises awareness of ‘High Definition’ consoles, and separates the camps a little with regards to PCs and consoles. They shouldn’t be on the same battlefield; Console fanboys shouldn’t be so quick to laugh at PCs; their boxes can’t perform at that level. PC gamers shouldn’t regard consoles as useless and beneath them either. What do I want for Christmas? A bit of peace, love and understanding PC BITS